Tenn. House OKs return of electric chair

NASHVILLE — Tennessee would be ready to electrocute death row inmates should lethal injection drugs be unavailable under a bill approved Wednesday by the House.

NASHVILLE — Tennessee would be ready to electrocute death row inmates should lethal injection drugs be unavailable under a bill approved Wednesday by the House.

Representatives voted 68-13 for the measure. The bill was previously approved by the Senate, but a minor amendment added by the House sends it back to the Senate. If senators agree, it goes to Republican Gov. Bill Haslam.

Under the bill, lethal injection would remain the preferred method of execution. But in the event the drugs needed were unavailable or lethal injections were found unconstitutional by a court, the state would have a standby.

Not everyone was happy with that.

"I believe in allowing the law of God to punish a man for his sins," Rep. Johnny Shaw, R-Bolivar, a pastor, said on the House floor. "But it is not for me to say I should throw the rock, that rock … because life or death is not in my hands."